Information and data about hotels.
I hope all of you had a happy holiday season and a good start to 2013. Here at Monscierge we are busier than ever getting ready for new projects this year. The latest GEM Report is out soon, taking a look back at 2012 and forward at 2013. (You can catch up on Q1 and Q2 at the links.) In the same spirit, I’d like to share some favorites over the last year. Our most-shared blog posts: What happens to the hotel guest experience during an emergency? This post discussed our own Elizabeth Robinson’s experience during Hurricane Sandy. Hotels doing social media right. Three brands on Facebook and Twitter who are rocking their social media presence. Favorite new (or new-to-me) people: Steve Cokkinias, CEO of InnSense Leadership, writes about his stories from the wild side of the hotel business on the InnSense blog. Lucy Hys, blogger at Online Fantastic, is a social media expert in the travel industry and has some great tips on her blog for hoteliers. Favorite Guest Experience Articles: Pineapple Service, by Roberta Nedry, discusses how the littlest efforts can make the biggest impressions on the guest experience. Hospitality favorite Are Morch discusses social media’s influence on …
The nature of hospitality has, at its very root, the caring for one another. A generous spirit and sincere concern for another individual is what makes hospitality professionals great at what they do. With that in mind, it is no surprise that charity seems to come naturally to those who have built their careers taking care of others. In the midst of the season of giving, I wanted to share with our readers some the charities I have come across within the industry. This is far from being a complete list – most hotel groups and individual hotels have many ways to give back on a local and global scale. Hospitality Action has been around for over 170 years. According to the history published on their website, they were originally founded as the “London Coffee House Keepers Association” for the purpose of providing relief to aged members of the trade, and their widows and orphans. They now provide all manner of support for hospitality workers who need it, including financial counseling, grants for essential items, and support for retired workers. They lend a hand to individuals in times of crisis related to health, domestic violence, and many others. The Global …
Around the office (and beyond), our Monscierge team is driven, hard-working, and innovative. Recently, techJOYnt Robotics Academy visited our office and kindly shared their toys with us. What’s more fun than Legos at work? The Lego Mindstorm Challenge is a team building exercise that promotes critical thinking. Our staff divided into two teams with the same objectives, and were given an hour and a half to complete as many of the objectives as possible. The teams had to work together to build their own robot, program it to move autonomously, and complete the objectives one at a time. This was a creative and fun way for people from different departments to work together to complete a challenge. Even our own resident programmers had to learn a new programming language to get their robots to move. What activities have you participated in to build culture? Have you found anything that beats the fun nerdy-coolness of Lego robots? Tell us about it in the comments.
If there is one thing that everyone can agree on concerning travel in 2012, it is that today’s travelers are more in the know than they have ever been. Rarely does anyone plan a trip without first checking into their destination via online reviews, peer recommendations, and property websites. In a recent article by USA Today, Choice Hotels CEO Steve Joyce says, “I don’t know any segment of the business where people aren’t demanding more value, and I think that will remain until people feel like they have recovered their wealth, which is going to be 10 years from now. It’s free Internet, free parking, free breakfast and other services they want but don’t want to pay additional for.” Guest experience has always been the driving force behind the hospitality industry, and this new generation of tech-savvy travelers is raising the bar for hotel owners everywhere. It is no longer enough to have the best photos, the best marketing strategy, or to coast on reputation. “Travel destinations are working harder and harder to retain credibility in the age of the incredulous.” (via Larry Mogelonsky) A current study by Hospitality Technology shows that the second biggest IT concern for hotels is …
Digital signage is on a sharp rise in the hospitality industry. Interactive touch screens are in, and those back-lit “you are here” maps are making an exit. So what are some key features to identify when implementing a signage upgrade? Digital signage should first and foremost connect you to your guests, giving you the opportunity to enhance their experience through multiple channels: Interactive wayfinding Travel information such as flights, maps, and weather forecasts In-house promotions Menus Amenities Event information Interaction with your brand Social media integration Secondly, ensure that the signage you are purchasing has a content management system (CMS) that allows you to customize the content, retaining brand consistency and reliability. Digital signage is an elegant, meaningful, and effective tool and your brand can be at the front and center if you manage the content in-house. Social media integration is another way for your brand to shine through digital signage. Users are able to share photos of your property along with your branding on their own social pages, combining peer recommendations with instant brand messaging. In short, keep the needs of your guests at the top of your mind and stay true to your brand.